Army of Crime

You've seen these movies before about World War II. People don't just sit back and do nothing. Rather they fight back. Most of the times these movies are excellent. You come out of them wondering how this could have happened. So many died fighting to beat the bad guys. But in the end, justice prevails and the bad guys are put down.

"Army of Crime" is one of those movies. And it shouldn't be missed. This is a fact-based story of the French resistance who had to fight not only the Germans but their own people. The title comes from the term in a propaganda poster that the Germans and occupied French government used to label the fighters as terrorists.

The movie directed by Robert Guédiguian opens with the ending of what happened to this group of fighters, and proceeds to show who these people are and how they became an organized group of trained killers and fighters for freedom. They are of all religions, communists and foreign nationals like Missak Manouchian, an Armenian refugee and poet who at first is reluctant to use violence. They are also college students, champion swimmers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Their strength in their cause becomes more pronounced as more and more of their friends and family are rounded up and sent to their deaths in prisons and concentration camps.

Among the standouts in an excellent ensemble cast are the charismatic Robinson Stevenin, who plays it intense as Marcel Rayman, the young Jewish athlete who is filled with indignation and rage; Virginie Ledoyen as Melinee, who will do anything to protect her husband, Missak; and Simon Abkarian as Missak, the eloquent poet whose words live on and remain a testament and reminder to what happens when tyranny becomes legitimized.

-- Advisory: Violence, including torture and vivid scenes of assassinations.